Blair's successor takes helm of party, sees lesson in Iraq

Posted: Monday, June 25, 2007

MANCHESTER, England - Gordon Brown, Britain's next prime minister, on Sunday promised a foreign policy that recognizes that defeating terrorism is as much a struggle of ideas as a military battle - a lesson he said was drawn from Iraq.

As he took control of the governing Labour Party from Tony Blair, Brown said Britain would "learn lessons that need to be learned."

Britain's future foreign policy will "reflect the truth that to isolate and defeat terrorist extremism now involves more than military force," Brown told a conference of party members in Manchester, northern England.

"It is also a struggle of ideas and ideals that in the coming years will be waged and won for hearts and minds here at home and round the world."

The unpopularity of the Iraq war, and Britain's role in it, have dogged Blair through the last years of his leadership. The woman elected Sunday as Brown's deputy, Harriet Harman, has called for the government to apologize for mistakes over the Iraq war.

Iraq had "been a divisive issue for our party and our country," Brown said, adding that he would strive to work for a Mideast peace settlement that "becomes daily more urgent."

Brown has dismissed claims he would seek to loosen ties with President Bush to appease rank-and-file party members angered over the Iraq war, saying it is in Britain's national interest to have a strong relationship with the U.S. president.

Brown, a 56-year-old Scot who has been waiting in the shadows to take over from Blair, received a ringing endorsement from the outgoing prime minister. Blair, smiling and measured throughout a speech to introduce Brown, said his successor and "friend of 20 years" had every quality to make him a "great prime minister."

"I know from his character that he will give of his best in the service of our country, and I know from his record as chancellor that his best is as good as it gets," Blair said.

The men vied to lead the party in 1994 - but Brown was persuaded to stand aside, sparking an often turbulent relationship at the pinnacle of British politics for 10 years.